A Year After Her Breakthrough Performance, Sprinter Alexis Holmes is Ready to Make a Run at the Paris Olympics

When Alexis Holmes arrived at the 2023 World Athletics Championships in Budapest, Hungary, last August, she was relatively unknown in international track and field circles. But by the end of the first evening of competition she had announced herself to the world, thanks to a sensational anchor leg performance in the mixed 4x400-meter relays.

A former NCAA standout, Holmes was given the daunting task of facing off against one of the biggest names in the sport, Femke Bol of the Netherlands. Bol entered the meet having set a world indoor record in the 400 the previous winter and scoring the silver medal in the 400-meter hurdles at the 2022 world championships. It seemed a forgone conclusion that if she was handed the baton anywhere near the lead, the Dutch would easily take the gold.

Justin Robinson, Rosey Effiong and Matthew Boling ran well on the opening legs for the United States, and by the final exchange, the Netherlands had only the slightest of leads. Holmes refused to be intimidated, patiently following Bol for 300 meters before swinging wide to mount a challenge down the homestretch. Just a few steps from the finish line, Holmes drew even and began to pass Bol, moments before the Dutch star fell to the track and dropped her baton. Holmes had pulled off a massive upset, using a blazing-fast 48.82 second split to help Team USA break the world record (3:08.80).

“I’ll be honest, leading up to the race there definitely was this pressure,” the 24-year-old Holmes admits. “Oh my gosh, Femke Bol, everyone was talking about her, there was a lot of buzz around it. But once I got to the track and once I got on the line, my mind just shifted to my competitive nature, where it’s like, everyone’s human and it’s a level playing field. I just had to believe in myself and that was the outcome, so it’s amazing.”

The thrill of that victory was somewhat tempered a few days later by an unfortunate disqualification in the women’s 4x400 when Holmes took the baton from a teammate outside of the exchange zone in the qualifying round. “I’ve never experienced something like that at a meet before. I’ll admit that whole night was a little bit chaotic for me,” she says of the last-minute call she received to replace an injured teammate. “It taught me to always be prepared for anything and not to take anything for granted.”

The confidence boost of the mixed relay and the lessons learned from the women’s relay have combined to propel the Hamden, Connecticut, native to the upper ranks of the sport in her second season as a professional athlete. And when the Olympic Team Trials — Track & Field begin at Hayward Field in Eugene Oregon, on June 21, Holmes will be one of the favorites to make the team for Paris in the 400.

In February she won her first USA Track & Field title, taking the 400 at the indoor championships. She followed that up with a bronze medal the World Athletics Indoor Championships in early March (behind Bol and Dutch teammate Lieke Klaver), setting a personal best of 50.24 in the process. Holmes also anchored the U.S. women’s 4x400 team to a silver medal at that meet.

The momentum has continued this spring with a strong series of races, where she has demonstrated impressive consistency. “I’ve been doing a really good job of taking care of my body, trying to stay healthy going into Trials,” Holmes says. Working under coach Lawrence “Boogie” Johnson, Holmes has adjusted to higher volume and intensity in training. Based in Fayetteville, Arkansas, her training partners includes 400 hurdles stars Dalilah Muhammad, the 2016 Olympic champion, and Anna Cockrell, a finalist at the 2021 Olympics and 2023 world championships. (Though Johnson is also member of the coaching staff at the University of Arkansas, Holmes does not train with the Razorbacks stars who recently completed a 1-2-3-4 sweep of the 400 at the NCAA championships.)

Holmes, who ran track and played basketball and volleyball in high school, comes from an athletic family. Her mother, Dawn Stanton, was an NCAA Division II All-American in the triple jump at Southern Connecticut State University, and Holmes beams with pride when she ticks off a list of her accolades.

After winning the 2018 New Balance high school outdoor national title in the 400, Holmes had a successful but at times frustrating experience as a college athlete. As a freshman at Penn State she won Big Ten indoor and outdoor titles in the 400, then represented Team USA at the 2019 Pan American Under-20 Championships, winning gold in the 4x400 and silver in the individual 400.

She then transferred to the University of Kentucky, where injury setbacks initially limited her potential. But as a senior in 2022 she won the Southeastern Conference indoor title, placed fourth at the NCAA indoor and outdoor meets and helped the Wildcats win the national title in the 4x400.

“I think it’s just my natural competitive spirit,” she says of her resilience in the face of injury. “I knew my potential in the sport and I wanted to just focus on taking it one day at time and getting healthy and back to where I was — and also progress further. It wasn’t easy.”

Last year, she missed making the 400 final at the USATF Outdoor championship by just one place (and one-tenth of a second). Though she landed a spot in the relay pool for the world championships (leading to her breakthrough moment in Budapest), it was a disappointing performance.

“That definitely motivated me,” she says. “My first year as a pro had its ups and downs, just trying to get me feet under me and figure things out. Going into Trials this year I feel a lot more confident in myself overall, and I think that’s going to make a huge difference.”

A competitive 400 field at the Trials will include Kaylyn Brown, the NCAA runner-up for Arkansas, Talitha Diggs, the 2022 USATF and NCAA champion, and Shamier Little, a two-time world championships silver medalist in the 400 hurdles. (Sydney McLaughlin-Levrone, who has the fastest time in the world this year at 48.75, will be focusing on the 400 hurdles at the Trials.)

“I’m looking forward to some great competition,” Holmes says. “Obviously there’s a lot of girls running well for the U.S. right now.”

The top three finishers in Eugene will earn a ticket to Paris. “I think you have to find the balance between playing it safe, so to speak, and also showing people, OK, I’m here and I’m ready,” Holmes says. “I would be happy leaving there top three, but I wouldn’t be satisfied. You don’t train all that time to get second or third. I want to be the top U.S. runner going into the Olympics.”